This Red Lentil and Chorizo Gumbo (because ‘gumbo’ is a much sexier word than stew) is the perfect mid week meal requiring approximately seven minutes preparation – and a slow cooker. If you don’t have a slow cooker in your life, cooking this in a heavy based pot on your stove top would work just fine, I reckon it would need about an hour to cook the lentils to perfection.
Red Lentil and Chorizo Gumbo Recipe
Ingredients (serves 6)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
6 chorizo sausage, sliced (I used x2 150g packets of Verkerks Chorizo Sticks)
1 and 1/2 cups dried red lentils
2 kumara, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
1 teaspoon (heaped) smoked paprika
1 teaspoon (heaped) ground cumin
1 can of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon honey
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
‘Good grind’ of black pepper
- Place a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the oil. Add onion, garlic, chorizo. Stir for 2 minutes or so until the onion is translucent. Add cumin, paprika, carrot and capsicum. Stir for about five minutes until everything is lightly golden.
- Add to slow cooker. Add all other ingredients. Cook on low for 6-7 hours or until the lentils are tender and the gumbo is thick (I had it on for 8 hours on low, it was fine, but less time would have been ideal).
When it’s ready, check the seasoning – add salt and pepper as necessary. - I served this with brown rice and a dollop of pesto. It would be heavenly with a crusty fresh bread.
Note: The honey might seem like an odd ingredient, but I find when I cook with canned tomatoes they are quite acidic and ordinarily I use sugar to balance out the acidity. However, with #sugarfreeseptember sugar is clearly a ‘no no’ so I used honey instead. It worked like a charm.
I love the Verkerks Chorizo Sticks, but they were quite spicy and too hot for our little man, so if you are cooking this as a family dish and you are feeding little people, look out for that!
